


You Know I can't Grab Your Ghost Chips

by I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-15
Updated: 2015-04-15
Packaged: 2018-03-23 01:47:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3750364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own/pseuds/I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I’ll read you a story.” Danny says, casually.</p><p>“You’ll what?” Steve’s eyebrows rise, a little smile forms on his face.</p><p>“C’mon, I read to Gracie all the time when she can’t sleep.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Know I can't Grab Your Ghost Chips

**Author's Note:**

> I really love the ghosts, okay? 
> 
> The Ghost Boards is inspired by (and Title is from) this NZ Anti Drink Driving Ad. Found here if anyone is interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtWirGxV7Q8 The summary of it is that this kid is having an internal debate on whether he tells his drunk friend not to drive and risks looking dumb in front of the girl he likes, or doesn't tell his drunk friend not to drive and risks his friend dying and haunting him for the rest of his life, offering him ghost food that he can't eat... it's my favourite anti drink driving ad. I don't know why I used it as the title, but I did, so... 
> 
> Any other recognizable references or characters in this fic belong to other people, people who are not me. :)

“Steven. Go to bed!” Steve jumps at the sudden voice on the couch beside him.

“Jesus!” Steve exclaims, a hand over his heart.

“Hmm, not quite, babe.” Danny replies with a smirk. “Go to bed.”

“Can’t sleep.” Steve answers quickly, eyes locked on his friend.

“Try.”

“What do you think I’ve been doing, Danny?” Steve asks, shaking his head. “I even went for a swim, tried to tire myself out. Nothing is working.”

“I’ll read you a story.” Danny says, casually.

“You’ll what?” Steve’s eyebrows rise, a little smile forms on his face.

“C’mon, I read to Gracie all the time when she can’t sleep.”

“Alright.” Steve agrees, pushing himself onto his feet. “And what are you going to be reading to me this evening?” he asks, as they both trudge up the stairs.

“I think I left the Hobbit here last time I stayed over…” Steve snorts, but doesn’t comment as he dives into bed. Danny disappears into the guest room and comes back with the book. He sits on the empty side of the bed, leans his back against the wall, and starts to read.

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole and that meant comfort.” Steve smiles and closes his eyes, allowing the sound of his friend’s voice to lull him into sleep.

Danny is gone by the time he wakes the next morning, and there is no evidence Danny was ever even there. Steve sighs heavily and makes himself roll out of bed and go on with his day.

* * *

He’s sitting in his chair later that night, watching the waves when there is a sigh beside him, and he turns to find his friend in the opposite chair.

“You need to start taking care of yourself, Steven.” Steve sighs and rolls his eyes.

“I am taking care of myself, Danny. I’m just… not in a very good place right now.”

“I know, babe, I know. And I’m sorry, okay? I am. Truly. But you’ve got to move past this.” Steve looks at his friend like he’s gone mad.

“You don’t think I’m…” Steve stops, takes a deep breath and shakes his head. “It’s hard, Danny. I don’t even have anyone to blame for this. Don’t have anyone to shoot or lock away. It’s just… I’ve come to terms with the fact I will lose friends in the line of duty. I _get_ that. I accepted that a long, long time ago. But...”

“But losing them to natural causes is something you don’t know if you can accept. I know.” Danny sighs and turns his head, looking out over the crashing waves.

“I could have done _something_.”

“No. No, babe, you couldn’t have. Okay? There was nothing anyone could do.” Steve sighs heavily and crosses his arms over his chest like a petulant child. Danny has always known better than Steve.

“There had to have been something… some way that someone could have saved-“

“There was nothing, Steven. Please understand that. There was nothing. The doctors did what they could, and so did you. And sometimes… sometimes the best just isn’t enough, okay? That’s no one’s fault. That’s just how things are.”

 _“Fuck._ ” Danny smiles softly and shakes his head.

“Yeah.”

“You’re dead, Danny.” The words sound like they have forced their way out of Steve’s mouth, like if he’d had any say in the matter, those words would have died before ever making their way into the air. It is the first time Steve has said those words since Danny died three weeks ago.

“I know, Steve. Babe, trust me. I know.”

“I should have… I don’t know. I should have forced you to go to the hospital. I should have…” Steve’s hands clench into fists in his lap and he shakes his head.

“Steve. Let it go. It’s not your fault.”

“The doctor said the bleed in your brain was likely caused when the airbags deployed after that crash. I should have made you go to the hospital!” Steve launches from his chair, and right up into Danny’s face. “I should have made you go to the hospital. I should have.”

“Steven! You tried to make me go to the hospital, okay? You tried. I refused. I argued, and I refused, and I wouldn’t let you do it. If you need, if you absolutely need to place blame somewhere, place it on me, okay? Because I’m the one who refused to go.”

“Danny…”

“Steven. I think when the ghost of your dead friend stays around for the sole purpose of making sure your ass doesn’t become all self-deprecating and self-recriminating, then I think that, maybe, you should listen to him.” Danny says, holding his hands out and shrugging his shoulders. Steve scowls and pulls back, turning away and walking towards the water, putting distance between them. He turns back to face Danny, his left hand rubbing his right in an attempt to calm himself.  

“Danny.”

“Don’t Danny me, Steve, okay? I was the one who made the decision to veto the hospital. That was my choice to make. I’m sorry if I made the wrong decision, but that’s life, babe. It happens. I felt _fine_ after that crash. Felt a little bit bruised, maybe. But I was fine otherwise. You weren’t even speeding like usual, okay? I thought the minor disorientation I felt was from being whipped forward into the airbag. I didn’t, at any time, consider that I had a goddamn haemorrhage, okay? And even if I had thought about it, none of that would have stayed with me, because the next thing I knew, we were hauling our suspect out of his car!” Danny’s hands are in motion, and Steve’s eyes try to track them.

“Danny…”

“So don’t you try to blame yourself for any of this, because it’s not your fault. If anyone is to blame, it is me. And, well, I’m sorry that you’re just going to have to live with that.” Danny opens his mouth to say more when he notices the way Steve’s shoulders have slumped, and the way his head has bowed. “Steve?” Danny pushes himself to his feet and inches closer, eyes tracking over his partner. “Steve? Steven?” Steve’s legs buckle and he falls to his knees.

“I _can’t_ believe you.” Steve says, like he wants those four words to explain everything to Danny when he knows they can’t.

“What, why not?” Danny asks, kneeling down in front of Steve so he can look up into his eyes.

“You just said… you just said that you’re only here to make me not blame myself. If I stop, you’ll go away.” Danny starts laughing.

“Steve, you sentimental fool! I’m here right now to help you get through this, but I promised Gracie I’d be there on her wedding day, so I’m stuck here for a _long_ time. Gracie has her mother, and she has Step-Stan, and all her uncles and her aunties, she doesn’t need me right now. In fact, she kind of kicked me out and told me to go make sure Uncle Steve doesn’t have those ‘Stupid Sad Super Seal eyes on, Danno’. So, look, here I am.”

“Stupid Sad Super Seal eyes?” Steve asks, a hesitant smile on his face.

“They’re doing poetry at school at the moment. Their literary device of the week is alliteration.” Danny says with a shrug, “Personally I prefer polysyndeton.” Danny smirks at the confusion that appears on Steve’s face.

“… what?”

“Polysyndeton. Uh. ‘And I laughed and I cried and I wept for joy that he was alive and breathing and living and laughing and standing right before me and I could not stand under the weight of my relief and my joy and my happiness and I fell and I tumbled and I plunged to the floor’.”

“What?”

“That’s a polysyndeton. It’s basically where you use a bunch of conjunction words in close succession. Like I could have said ‘I laughed, cried, wept for joy that he was alive, breathing, living, laughing, and standing right before me. I could not stand under the weight of my relief, joy, and happiness and I fell, tumbled, and plunged to the floor’.” Steve continues to stare at Danny like he’s crazy and Danny sighs. “You’ve seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, right?”

“Of course, my bunk mate was in love with it.”

“Good. Then perhaps this example will go better. ‘And St. Atilla raised the hand grenade up on high saying ‘O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade that with it thou mayest blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.' And the Lord did grin and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orang-utans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats and…’”

“Oh, okay. I think I get it.” Steve laughs and rolls his eyes. “It figures you’d favour a literary device designed to be annoying and time consuming and overwhelming and-“

“Yes, yes, alright, you’ve made your point, thank you.” Danny cuts him off, laughing. “You stopped being an idiot now?”

“For the moment.” Steve replies, able to breathe easy for the first time in three weeks.

“Hmm, that’s usually the best I can hope for. I’ll take it. Let’s go inside and have a beer, before your dad drinks all the Ghost Boards.”

“… the Ghost Boards?”

“Don’t even ask, Steven. Don’t even ask.”


End file.
